Just Like Gabriel
by GirlOnFire15
Summary: A oneshot of Gabriel's death. I wasn't happy with any of the others I've read, so I wrote one myself.


Gabriel shot the murderer in the stomach. Tavington collapsed facedown on the ground. Gabriel retrieved his knife from the body of a redcoat and flipped it in his hand. He gripped it like a dagger, ready to scalp the man who killed his little brother and his beautiful wife. He took a breath, raised the knife, and brought it down.

Pain. Shooting, stabbing pain that emanated from his middle. He gaped at Tavington, who glared triumphantly at him. _He ran me through with his sword. He wasn't dead!_ Gabriel thought in shock. Tavington shoved him off of his rapier. Gabriel landed flat on his back.

Tavington slunk away like the villain he was. Gabriel tried to go after him, but his body would not longer follow commands. A horrible fog settled over his mind. He couldn't think. Couldn't breathe. A heavy weight sat on his chest and crushed his lungs._ I'm dying_, he thought in disbelief. _I'm dying. _

He had a hand pressed to the wound in his middle. His shallow breath rasped in his throat. The pain spread outward from his middle to the very edge of his fingertips. It hurt. Oh, it hurt. The life seeped out of him with the scarlet blood that stained his shirt.

The sound of hoofbeats echoed in his throbbing head. And then someone was beside him. "Father," he said in a strangled sort of voice.

"Shh," said Benjamin. "It's alright. I'll take care of you. You'll be fine."

Gabriel shook his head. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

"Don't talk, son. We'll get you back. You'll be fine." Benjamin's voice was fiercely determined, but Gabriel knew his words would prove false. He was minutes, if not seconds, away from death.

There was so much he needed to say. So many things that bubbled to his lips. The only thing that made it out into the air was the thing that hurt him most. "I'm sorry about Thomas," he said.

"Oh, son," said Benjamin mournfully, "that wasn't your fault. It was mine."

Gabriel wanted to dispute his words, but he couldn't find his mouth. He didn't have the strength even to shake his head. The pain was leaving now. A kind of numbness was spreading through his body. His breath came even faster. His father was still speaking, but the words were garbled and he didn't understand them anymore- except for one sentence.

"Don't go," pleaded Benjamin in a broken voice.

_I don't want to go_, Gabriel wanted to say.

Black crept in at the edges of his sight, and for several seconds he was only aware of the smell of dirt and blood and grass, and the wind whistling sadly through the trees. His heard thudded weakly in his chest, then slowly sputtered to a stop.

Benjamin watched Gabriel's eyes glaze over, staring sightlessly at the canopy of trees above them. He couldn't believe it. His son, his wonderful, brave boy, he couldn't be dead. All the signs were there: heart silenced in his chest; a pool of blood soaking his coat; his limbs still and unmoving. Everything pointed to the cold fact that his eldest son was finally, prematurely, irrevocably, dead.

The crushing grief assaulted him, accompanied by tears. His men were watching him. They gawked at their captain, who knelt weeping over his dead son's body. Total silence ruled the scene. No one said a word. The only sound was the wind rustling the leaves and the rushing of water over stones.

A terrible hatred welled up inside Benjamin. Tavington would pay. He would pay three times over for the death of Benjamin's two sons and daughter-in-law.

Ben would see him broken and dead. He would die a slow, painful death, just like his son.

Just like Gabriel.

**A/N: I actually am not a supporter of Rated R movies. It was actually an accident I even saw the Patriot. See, my best friend and I have a deep abiding love of Heath Ledger, and when she found out I'd never seen it, she thought I had been deprived. She thought it was PG-13. We didn't know until after we watched it that it was R. I told my parents, and my dad said that the Patriot is the one R movie I'm allowed to see. **

**Anyway, I have to say that I love Gabriel and was in tears when he died. I would marry the character. Hope you enjoyed it. PLEASE REVIEW.**


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